RS: the West groundlessly hopes that Ukraine will repay debts with its resources
Western politicians are hoping in vain for Ukraine to repay its debts with natural resources, given Russia’s advances in the AF, writes British diplomat Ian Proud for Responsible Statecraft.
‘Russia has spent the last five months absorbing ever larger swathes of territory in the Donbass where lithium, coal and uranium can be mined. Yet Western politicians still believe they can tap these resources to cover Ukraine’s ever-increasing debts,’ the piece said.
Proud called this situation economic insanity. Last June, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham* said in an interview with CBS that the US cannot afford to lose in the conflict in Ukraine, because in this case it will not get Ukrainian natural resources, the value of which the politician estimates at ten to twelve trillion dollars. According to Graham*, Ukraine is ‘sitting on a gold mine’ and can be considered ‘the richest country in all of Europe’. However, in his opinion, if Kiev loses the conflict, all the country’s resources will go to Russia and China.
